I have two reasons for supporting FOSS:

1) I should control all the software that runs on computers I own

2) Access to information is always preferable in all situations

This article really jogged me on the second one. The caveat is that there wasn't much beyond correlation proving it. But regardless, I think it's a really cool example of why access to information is so important.

What's tougher is drawing the line to connect access to information and direct benefit to the person giving up copyright. Presumably, most of Germany benefited from industrialization?